Music: [u2tour] Re: GA procedure, my experience in Pittsburgh

With all due respect, I think you're describing just the sort of situation
the lists were created to avoid - that is, a bunch of different lines all
descending at the same time and a lot of people getting screwed over. If I
saw someone doing this I'd probably think they were queue jumpers who
certainly hadn't put in the same time as any of the people who had actually
bothered to show up a bit early. No wonder bad feelings develop.

Incidentally, a lot of the venue sites have given ridiculously late start
times for the GA queue. 9AM. *11*AM. If what you consider 'public'
information is only the info you get from the venue maillist, then I'm
afraid you'll be sorely disappointed to come in when they tell you and find
that there are plenty of other people already there.

I don't know. As I said, I think the length of the time between the start of
the line and showtime has been ridiculous on this leg (it wasn't nearly as
bad on the first American leg). There are a lot of reasons it's getting
earlier, I think, but it's certainly not a great trend. I really do think
being in arenas will probably settle things down once more since there won't
be time to do these crazy two day before queues.

On the other hand, the amount of bitterness in this discussion is crazy. I
can think of a few very important functions the line-starters perform just
off the top of my head:

- They keep fans numbered and orderly - having a number system helps to
reduce the number of people trying to cut in line, while allowing people who
have been there all day to get food or go on bathroom breaks, etc

- They interface with security. Venues often have no idea what to do with U2
Fans, and I'm honestly grateful that there are people who have been around
before who can both get a reasonable time sorted to be allowed on premises
(9AM is not reasonable) and talk about ways to make getting through the day
and into the venue better.

- They provide a way for U2's security people to get everyone organized and
safely in the queue. After the disaster that was the California shows, U2
put a point person from their staff to work with security on getting people
in safely (Dave). Dave has been talking with the line leaders and the GA
line that is present at roll-call the day of show is the line that gets
moved in to the corrals or barriers or whatever venue has arranged for
people. He also (at least in Pittsburgh) has the venue honour the numbers
that are from the list (i.e. the one you're saying has no real clout).
Security were very clear in the first corral in Pittsburgh that if you
didn't have a number you were going to the back of the queue. That sounds
like a pretty clear endorsement of the line to me.
[In at least one city - Nashville- the venue actually renumbered the line
and I still think Boston '05 was one of the best examples of how to run
things from a venue perspective - we may have slept out in the snow all
night, but at least we got wrist bands and were allowed to rest a bit before
the show itself. ]

Does everything always go smoothly? No, of course not. In Pittsburgh the
venue was incredibly unhelpful as to when people could actually line up. I
was talking to venue *staff* and they didn't know. They just told us we were
welcome to queue up (this was on Sunday) and have the big line form on
Tuesday morning. That led to some confusion as to the exact time since the
venue wouldn't *give* a time, but details were finally circulated as well as
they possibly could be. [As a side note, I think that's why roll-call wasn't
adhered to as strictly in Pittsburgh as it was in other cities - in other
cities if you weren't there at roll-call, you were struck from the list. In
Pittsburgh there was so much confusion as to when roll-call was that people
were much more lenient (probably erring on the too lenient side)] In most
other cities the roll-call was an hour to an hour and a half before the
venue said we were allowed to be on property.

In general though, the people who are starting lines really aren't some sort
of secret cabal of U2 fans who eat children and small dogs for lunch. They
start the lines early (too early) but they are also the ones who will camp
out overnight, who will sit for hours with a notebook to give people
numbers, who interface with security and dave and try to make things
relatively orderly. On a personal level, some of them I quite like and some
of them I'm glad I don't have to spend much time with.

For the most part they're fair. I remember the drama of putting friends on
the list, especially during Vertigo (and some on the first American leg),
but that really hasn't been a problem this leg. Like I said, I was 35 in
Pittsburgh and I saw *everyone* in front of me. No one was just magically on
the list without having put in time. I think the sour grapes negativity here
is totally unwarranted. I mean, come on. People complaining about being 250?
That's second row. Come. On.

So let's all take a deep breath... relax...

and read the U2LineNazi twitter (best tour twitter account by a mile):

http://twitter.com/#!/u2linenazi

---

Yeah, it's precisely the "shifts" I'm objecting to. I also don't consider
facebook and twitter fan sites to be public information. Public information
would be something from the venue or U2, emailed to ticket holders or posted
on
the website.

Now that I've gotten more supportive emails than not, next time I'm going to

start my own line with a large group at precisely the time the venue
specifies
lining up. We'll see who the venue prefers at that time.

Love and Peace or else!

Kate

--
"Starting to think that all of the world's major problems can be solved with
either oyster sauce or backing vocals."
-Brian Eno

(Eviscerate your memory)

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